Academics




Library systemedit

"This country has given me so much that I am only too happy to be allowed to help it to develop and to be able to give back to it a fraction of what it has given to me".

— Dr. Hans Merensky
at the opening of the Merensky Library ".

In 1933, the University decided that the library collection necessitated the building of a new library building, the collection which at that time was kept in the Old Arts building. The library was designed by the South African architect Gerard Moerdijk, following a donation of £10,000 (£697,337 as of 2018) from mining geologist Dr. Hans Merensky and construction started in 1937. Drawing from his inspiration from Persia and Africa, the design of the building incorporates several architectural styles including Art Deco, Neo-Classicism, Arts and Crafts, Cape Dutch and Regency. The Old Merensky Library was proclaimed a provincial heritage site in 1991.

Despite expansions to the Old Merensky Library in 1957, the library subsequently became insufficient to meet the growing needs of the institution and in 1975 the Merensky Library II was completed, currently housing 7 of 9 the faculty libraries. Besides the main Merensky Library complex, the university library system also includes the separately administered Jotello F Soga Library (Veterinary Science), Oliver R Tambo Law Library, Education Library, Mamelodi Library, Dentistry Library and Health Sciences Library.

The Oliver R Tambo Law Library houses the Faculty of Law's collection of legal materials and the Law of Africa collection in the library is the single most comprehensive and current collection of primary legal materials of African countries.

In 1974 the Jotello F Soga Library of the Faculty of Veterinary Science at the Onderstepoort campus was established and is named in honour of the first South African to qualify as a veterinary surgeon, Dr Jotello Festiri Soga.

In 2006 the University established UPSpace, its own open access digital research repository. and the university's library has since become one of 27 partners in the World Digital Library project.

Archivesedit

In 1978 the first task group responsible for the investigation in creating an archive system for the University of Pretoria was chaired by Prof. A.N. Pelzer (Vice-rector). Due to the death of Prof. Pelzer in 1981 the project stalled, but by 1994 the need for a central archive system was again recognised by the acting Registrar, Prof. C.R. de Beer. The archives were finally established by 13 September 1994 by the Management of the University and this date is considered as the founding date of the archives of the University of Pretoria.

Researchedit

The university's achievements and performance in research locally and internationally, including its collaboration and cooperation with the private sector, industry, science councils, foundations and NGOs, the large number of graduates that it produces (particularly doctoral and other postgraduate students) as well as scientists and engineers and its focus on innovation, contribute directly towards enhancing the South Africa's competitiveness. A 2010 report by Centre for Higher Education Transformation identified the university as a top research-intensive university in South Africa. The university is member of the CDIO Initiative, an international engineering education collaboration.

The strategic alliance formed in 1999 between the University of Pretoria and the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), has been abandoned for unpublished reasons. This alliance, which was known as the Southern Education and Research Alliance (SERA), collaborated locally and internationally with universities, NGOs, companies and multinational bodies in various research areas.

Notable research includes:

  • Centre for Human Rights
  • Forestry and Agricultural Biotechnology Institute (FABI)
  • African Centre for Genome Technologies

Digital institutional repositoriesedit

UPeTDedit

UPeTD (University of Pretoria electronic theses and dissertations) was launched in July 2000 and forms part of the university's open scholarship programme. In January 2012 the Webometrics World Ranking of Institutional Repositories ranked the UPeTD website, 69th in the world. The records in UPeTD were migrated to the UPSpace institutional repository in August 2014, and UPeTD was subsequently discontinued.

UPSpaceedit

UPSpace (Institutional research repository of the University of Pretoria) is the name of the open access digital institutional repository of the University of Pretoria, established as a means for the management and dissemination of digital materials created by the institution and its community members. UPSpace contains a collection of the intellectual and research output produced by past and current researchers of the University of Pretoria. The spectrum of material covered includes the following: historical or archival material, research articles, popular research material, unpublished research, inaugural addresses, conference proceedings, technical reports and open lectures.

Reputation and rankingedit

University rankings
Global – Overall
ARWU World401-500 (2019)
CWTS World452 (2019)
League table rankings

The QS World University Rankings ranks the university as follows:

Year World rank Art & Humanities Archaeology Biological Sciences Engineering & IT Life Sciences Agriculture & Forestry Theology Social Sciences
2020 551-570 383 151-200 301-350 364 348 51-100 51-100 320
2019 561-570 365 151-200 301-350 401-450 360 101-150 51-100 334
2018 501–550 345 151–200 351–400 — 391 101–150 51–100 398
2017 451–500 351–400 151–200 301–350 351–400 — 101–150 51–100 351–400
2016 401–500 — — 301–400 291 — 101–150 — —
2015 501+ — — 301–400 — — 101–150 — —
2014 469 405 — — 368 367 51–100 — 290
Financial Times World Ranking 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2104 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020
Executive MBA - - - - 67 60 70 80 87 74 87 67 82
Executive Education Customised 49 51 41 38 - 42 - 53 53 45 41 51 45 60
Executive Education Open 39 38 49 50 49 47 - 45 48 46 52 45 38 32

In January 2011 Webometrics ranked the university as the 2nd in South Africa and Africa.

In January 2015 Webometrics ranked the university as the 3rd in South Africa and 4th Africa.

In July 2015 Webometrics ranked the university as the 4th in South Africa and Africa.

GIBS again ranks in the top 100 - UK Financial Times Executive MBA Ranking 2019.

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